The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-03-01
A MODERN SERMON.

upou WHICH, CuC dNcIdSC pui CUii-
structs his delectable discourses -
Brethren, the words of my text
" 'Old Mother Hubbard, she went to the
cupboard,
TO get her poor dog n bone;
But when she got there the cupboard
was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.'
"'rhese beautiful words, dear
friends, carry with them a solemn
lesson. propose this evening to
analyse their meaning, and to at
tempt to apply it, lofty as it may be,
to our everyday life.
F" odd Mother Hubbard, she went to the
cupboard,
To get her poor dog bone
Smother Hubbard, you see, was
old; there being no mention of
others, we may presume that she
was alone; a widow-a friendless,
old, solitary widow. Yet did she
despair? Did she sit down and
weep or read novel, or wiring her
hands? No! she rent to tie cup
board. And here observe that she
'oent to the cupboard. She did not
hop, or skip, or run, or jump, or
use any other peripatetic artifice;
she solely and merely pent to the
cupboard.
'tWe have seen that she was old
and lonely, and we now further see
that she was poor. For mark, the
words are the cupboard" Not zone
of the cupbords,' or the 'right-hand
Cupboard or the 'left-hand cup
board or the one above, or the one
below, or the one under the floor,
but just tile cupboard-the one
humble little cupboard the poor widow
possessed. And why did she go to
the cupboard? Was it to bring
forth golden goblets, or glittering
precious stones, or costly apparel,
or feasts, or any other attributes of
wealth? 1t was to get her poor dog
a bone! Not only was the widow
poor, but her dog, the sole prop Of
her age, was poor too. We can
imagine the scene. The poor dog
crouching In the corner, looking
wistfully at the solitary cupboard,
and the widow going to the cup
board-in hope, in expectation, may
be-to open it, although we are not
distinctly told that it was not half
open or ajar-to open it for that
poor dog.
" But when she got there the cupboard
was bare,
And so the poor dog had none
When she got there!' You see,
dear brethren, what perseverance is.
You see the beauty of persistence
in doing right. she not there.
There were no turnings and twistings,
no slipping and slidings, no leanings
to the right or gatherings to the left.
With glorious simplicity we are told
she got there.
"And how was her noble effort
rewarded?
The cupboard was bare!' 1t
was bare. There were to be found
neither apples nor oranges, nor
cheesecakes, nor penny buns, nor
gingerbread, nor crackers, nor nuts,
nor lucifer matches. The cupboard
was bare! There was but one, only
one solitary cupboard in the whole
of that cottage, and that one, the
sole hope of the widow and the
glorious loadstar of the poor dog,
was bare! Had there been a leg of
mutton, loin of lamb, fillet of
veal, even an ice from Gunter's, the
case would have been different, the
incident would have been otherwise.
But it was bare, my brethren, bare
as bald head, bare ms an infant
born without a caul.
"Many of you will probably say,
with all the pride of worldly sophis-
try, 'The widow, no doubt, went out
and bought n dog.biscuit.' All,
no! Far removed from these earthly
ideas, these mundane desires, poor
Mother Hubbard, the widow whom
many thoughtless worldlings would
despise, in that she only owned one
cupboard, perceived-or ! might
even say saw-at once the relentless
logic of the situation, and yielded
to it with all the heroism of thai
nature which had enabled her with
out deviation to reach the barrel
cupboard. She did not attempt, like
the stiff-necked scoiiers of this
generation, to war against the in
evitable; she did not try, like thu
so-called men of science, to explain
what she did not understand. Sh'
did nothing. THE poor dog ha'
none!' And then at this point on
information ceases. But do we no
know sufficient? Are we not cog
nisant of enough!